Friday, June 12, 2009

Exciting times

I have to be careful not to get too many people's hopes up on this one, but it's still very nice!

I can't remember where, but some time ago, I heard that July 17th was the earliest that we could have the Daktronics computer(s) that could run all of the videoboards. Meaning, any creative content built ON the Dak computer, scripts (a single button that can play content on multiple boards) or RTD pages (Real Time Data - stats, game clock, score) that we needed would have to wait until July 17th to be STARTED. Remember: we have to rebuild E-V-E-R-Y-T-H-I-N-G from the ground up.

Well....

Dak brought their rack of equipment (including data distributors, Venus/V7000 computers, etc.) pre-built. Meaning, all the pieces were already screwed in and wired up (within the rack). They had some computer issues to iron out once they turned it on (RAID controller problems), but once that was done, the rack was ready... but... it was still just sitting in the hall.

Asking the project manager how long it would be before it was in place and ready, I was given an answer of "a few weeks" [because they would need to wait for Diversified to finish some things first...].

Then, out of the blue, the following option was presented...

Why not move the rack down to your temporary office?

Simple, but AWESOME! The electricians were still wiring up the power today (officially meaning it took longer to POWER the board than it did to BUILD it), and there are some fiber terminations that still have to be made.

BUT... by the end of NEXT WEEK (nearly three weeks ahead of "schedule") we should be able to start sending some test content to the boards.

NOW... for the depressing part... While we can run content on the boards, it will still be a few weeks before we have everything starting to sing. There are tedious scripts we have to build (so that we hit one button and everything goes crazy, or whatever it's supposed to do), as well as building our RTD pages to hold our scoreboard info, shots/fouls, blah blah blah...

Because it will still be a few weeks, it means that - according to the original schedule, we'd be getting "up to speed" around the same time as all of our main equipment training kicks in the first of August... NOW, we'll have a little "extra" time to make sure things work on Opening Night :)

I know, I know... not as exciting as "we're running stuff already", but it's another significant step in the process! Now... time for a caffeine refill and back to work ;)